Page:Report of a Tour Through the Bengal Provinces of Patna, Gaya, Mongir and Bhagalpur; The Santal Parganas, Manbhum, Singhbhum and Birbhum; Bankura, Raniganj, Bardwan and Hughli in 1872-73.djvu/210

186 To the east of the second brick temple is a figure of Parvati, four-armed, with a small figrure of Ganeça to its right, and a female figure to its left; it is half-buried; in execution and style it resembles the sculptures at Dulmi, and I therefore ascribe it to the same age; it formed the object of worship in a small temple, which faced north, and of which the low mound in which the statue, if buried, is all that now remains.

To the east of this are the ruins of a small brick temple, which faced north (the other brick temples face east); there is in the ruins and still in situ a life-size sculpture of the eight-armed Durgâ slaying the Maheshâsur; this is the finest piece of sculpture in the place, and fully equals in every respect the similar sculpture at Dulmi, and is a close approach to the sculptures at Lakhisarai; it is in excellent preservation; its age I consider to be the same as of the Dulmi sculptures; it is in better preservation than the sister sculpture at Dulmi.

A few other mounds of no special interest exist; the last brick temple to the north-west of all others resembles them, but is plainer; it was plastered, and the ornamentation on the plaster is profuse and elaborate; the plaster, however, is clearly an after-addition; the temple was Saivic, as evidenced by a lingam and argha in the sanctum.

A few other mounds of no special interest exist.

A remarkable circumstance here is, that all the temples without exception, the object of which can now be ascertained, appear to have been Saivic; there is no Vaishnavic or other sculpture at all in the whole place; there must, therefore, have been a large and rich, and probably intolerant, Saivic establishment here.

Four miles south-east of this place, and some distance from the Kasái river, is the village of Ánsá Karandi, said to possess ruins of temples; I heard of them long after I had left the neighbourhood.  

Twenty-five miles west of Barâ Bâzâr (which itself is 25 miles south-east of Puralya) on the banks of the Subanrikhá river (the Suvarnarikhsha), is the small village of Dulmi, marked in the lithographed map of 8 miles to the inch as the site of some ruins; the village is known as Dyápar Dulmi, and contains numerous remains. A plan of the place, with the sites of most of the ruins, accompanies, but there are others to the north and north-east of the village. 